Taphonomic Marks on Pig Tissue Due to Cadaveric Coleoptera Activity Under Controlled Conditions

  • Author(s): Zanetti, Noelia I.; Visciarelli, Elena C.; Centeno, NĂ©stor D.
  • Title:
    Taphonomic Marks on Pig Tissue Due to Cadaveric Coleoptera Activity Under Controlled Conditions
  • Journal Title: Journal of Forensic Sciences
  • DOI: 10.1111/1556-4029.12399
  • URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.12399
  • Volume: 59
  • Issue: 4
  • Page(s): 997-1001
  • Date: 2014-02-06
  • Abstract:

    The aim of this work was to study taphonomic marks that cadaveric coleopteran can produce under controlled conditions. To evaluate this, pig trotters were initially exposed to adults of Dermestes maculatus De Geer at 21 ± 5°C and a 12:12‐h day/night cycle. Observations were made and photographs taken every 4–5 days for 9 months. When feeding and reproducing, D. maculatus produced, in both adult and larvae stages, different types of marks such as holes, striations, scratches, and pits in several kinds of tissue such as integumental, connective, and muscular, in both their fresh and dried stages. Bite marks were also evident. The results in this study provide not only taphonomic but also biological and forensic information. This is the first time that this kind of experiment has been performed.

  • ISSN: 0022-1198
  • Document Type: Journal Article
  • Language: en
  • Publisher:

Links & Files

Not cited in World Catalogue of Dermestidae (J. Hava, 2025)
Dermestidae Atlas database is made available under the Open Database License (ODbL). Any rights in individual contents of the database are licensed under the Database Contents License (DbCL).
The copyright for referenced articles and other external content remains with the original authors and publishers (if present, see specified license).